A Study of Self-Esteem and Romanticism among Pregnant Adolescents, Adolescent Mothers, and a Control Group in Southern California.

von der Hellen, Cheryl; And Others

In the United States over one million adolescent girls will become pregnant each year. Adolescent pregnancy often leads to truncated educational attainment and subsequently results in a prolonged cycle of poverty and dependence. This study investigated feelings of self-esteem and romanticism among pregnant adolescents (N=276), adolescent mothers (N=128), and a control group of non-pregnant, non-parenting adolescent girls (N=316). The Bachman Self-Esteem Scale and the Dean Romanticism Scale were administered to these subjects. In regard to self-esteem, results indicated that there was a significant main effect for race, but not for group or age. In regard to romanticism, significant effects were found for group and race, but not for age. The significant findings for self-esteem and race suggest that self-esteem remains stable with age among White and Hispanic subjects. However, Black subjects' self-esteem scores seem to increase with age and Asian subjects' scores tend to decrease with age. A possible explanation for this finding could be that different socialization experiences of these ethnic groups significantly influence feelings of self-worth. With regard to group differences, the control group had significantly lower romanticism scores when compared to pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers. This finding suggests that respondents in the control group may be more realistic and practical than pregnant adolescents or adolescent mothers. (ABL)